Company: Inverse Records Release: 2015 Genre: Death Reviewer: Greg Watson
Unabashed, unflinching and uncompromising
Wisconsin purveyors of all things death metal, Jungle Rot, have returned with their ninth full length album "Order Shall Prevail". Wait, ninth album? That can't be right...let me check...yeah ninth album. "Order Shall Prevail" is just a blood-spattered, gore-smeared, all-out assault on the senses in the best way possible. The band has never really pulled any punches with their albums, filling them with ridiculous amounts of crazy, over the top, heavy riffs, meat-shredding guitar solos, vocals that would make Cookie Monster cry out in falsetto and lots and lots of groove. That M.O. continues on this album, with almost every song packing a plethora of riffs that will have you banging your head to the point of self-inflicted whiplash. Vocalist Dave Matrise has one of the most easily intelligible death metal voices out there but doesn't sacrifice any of the guttural gurgitations that we death metal fans are so fond of. His voice reminds me of a mix between Chris Barnes of Six Feet Under in their early days and Vader's Piotr Wiwczarek. The album offers up many, many delectable slabs of death metal but for me, there are two tracks that really gets my blood churning. "E.F.K." has the honor of being the album's shortest track but the length doesn't sacrifice the brutality and aggression that Jungle Rot are known for. This song is the equivalent of being caught right in the middle of a whirlwind of razors, swords and any other sharp, pointy weapons you'd like to imagine. The second track is "Fight Where You Stand" and for me, the album's bloody best song. Featuring guest vocals supplied by the Max Cavalera, "Fight" pulls together all the heaviness, speed and malevolence the band tries to convey. The production on the album is a bit crisper than on 2013's "Terror Regime" and has polished things up just a little more before the blood, guts and other bodily fluids summarily cover the album. Unabashed, unflinching and uncompromising, Jungle Rot deliver their best album to date in my opinion and one that death metal fans will tear into with unbounded enthusiasm.